Chade was trotting along with Manea for another patrol.  The boy seemed to thrive on working, it helped to prove he had value and built his own confidence in himself.  The boy felt the original first instinct of fleeing fading to the desire to assist in the fighting.  He wanted to be able to be the one making the real difference in killing bears and the giant snakes and whatever other dangers presented themselves.

As they made their way around bushes and tree’s he slowed glancing at Manea.  The boy's brow furrowed, “it’s a funny sound,” the boy mused as he tried to decide what would make such a noise.  It was another animal for sure but not quite the sound of any wolf he’d ever heard.  It wasn’t a bear.  There was more than one animal making the noise though.  Sort of sounded like something laughing?

Chade didn’t have long to wonder before four hyenas appeared on the scene.  Funny-looking animals with their body kinda angled.  There was another one farther back but it seemed intent on something off to one side.  The rest though were clearly interested in Manea and Chade.  The dark blue boy pulled his ears back, showing off his fangs but an eye rolling to the side to glance slightly at Manea.  The hyenas were trying to spread out as they approached with some apparent notion to get the wolves in the middle.

"Speech"

Manea walked the perimeter of the grove with Chade once more. She did enjoy the boy's company and he was a useful companion when it came to fights and hunting. If she took one of the children on a patrol it was usually him or Saracyn. Avacyn was far more interested in stories and crafting than she was pretty much anything else so peeling her away to go walk around the edge of the Wildberry Grove was sometimes a bit of a chore. Even Saracyn was only really interested if there was a promise of fighting or killing something by the end of it. Chade was a bit more agreeable and easier to get along with in that regard and some days when she just needed to get a patrol done quickly and effectively that fit the bill just fine.

The very distinctive laughing barks of hyenas caught both of their attention as they moved through the grove, the sound getting louder as they continued until they stumbled upon a pack of the spotted creatures. As soon as they got close several of them decided that her and Chade where now their point of interest. She snarled at the yapping predators, watching their movements closely as they started to spread out around them. It forced her to stand back to back with Chade as she shifted to make sure she was at least facing most of them. "Be careful," she warned Chade under her breath. "They're smaller than some other predators, but they're fast and will swarm in all at once to overwhelm with numbers."

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

Chade nodded at Manea’s words but he didn’t dare turn his eyes off the hyenas.  Chared bared his fangs, blue fur standing on end, especially prominent along his neck. One way or another this was going to be a fight.  Two of the hyenas were closer to him, probably thinking smaller and younger meant easier, which was accurate, but Chade had no plans to let it be easy on them.  Once upon a time, his only way to survive was to flee but things were different now.

Chade rushed to one before it had a chance to start the fight.  He tried to get on its left side which would have it between the other hyena nearby but the hyena twisted its own body to make it a face-to-face confrontation if Chade didn't want to be between the two.  Fine.  Chade pressed his hind legs hard into the earth to spring forward in a quick lunge biting where jaw and neck met.  He had to rid his mind of the surprise and satisfaction of biting exactly where he’d wanted.  Chade was getting better!  No time to keep those thoughts in his mind.

His position of the bite had kept the hyena from being able to twist its head down to bite back but the other hyena wasn’t going to miss the chance to bite Chade while he was busy.  Chade let go of his one enemy, barely dodged its angry snap of teeth to avoid the other hyena choosing to join the battle.  Chade hadn’t killed the one hyena but it was bleeding heavily so at least it was less of a threat.

"Speech"

Only a few moments after she warned Chade of the dangers of the hyena pack, one of them tried to make a break for her, darting forward to snap at her leg. She snarled as its sharp teeth nicked her leg before she was able to stop it, but a hard swing of her large paw into the side of its head sent it reeling with claw marks across the side of its face. It skittered away with a yelp, but two more quickly took its place, snapping and biting at her legs, hardly staying in one spot long enough for her to catch one.

With an irritated snarl she finally snatched one of them by the back of the neck, biting down hard till her teeth hit bone, and gave several hard shakes of her head while she felt the vertebrae in its neck break. The other one kept biting at her leg and side, but she ignored it until the one in her jaws was dropped to the ground. She glanced over at Chade to make sure he was okay and saw one hyena trying to attack him while he was fighting another. She didn't mind getting a little bit and scratched up, but she didn't want that for Chade. She quickly caught the second one that had been attacking him with her claws, hooking the feline claws deep into its hip to pull it toward her, yanking it down to the ground in front of her and stepping hard in its neck to keep it pinned while she turned her attention toward the one she had been ignoring.

Manea | Temno | Ciemny

Manea had already killed, or maybe just nearly killed one, and before Chade knew it she had pinned the hyena which had been going after him than fighting another one!  Yet Chade was still messing with just one?  Emboldened by this he lunged in to grab the side of the hyena’s neck this time.  It tried to turn his head but now Chade wasn’t thinking of ‘what if’s’, the young man shook his head with strong thrashing motions, and feeling how the hyena actually lost its balance, stumbling a bit as he did.  The realization that he might be the stronger of the two was a shock but he took advantage.

Chade decided to mimic something he’d seen Manea do, well sort of.  Chade leaped up to put his front legs on the hip as Manea had done with her claws.  Instead of holding back with his hesitation he shoved his weight into it, the hyena was already injured enough it didn’t have a chance as Chade gained more confidence, it fell down making a strange sound in its throat.  Chade lowered his head, grabbing the underside of its throat, chomping down, and ripping it open as he would any prey animal.  Its lifeblood was seeping away fast.

Behind them, the hyena that hadn’t come to attack was watching now, having forgotten whatever it was interested in.  Chade was feeling a rush of energy and he ran straight towards it.  He could do this! These things weren’t so tough!  The hyena for its part saw what was happening to its companions.  Chade never got to fight it.  The hyena was fleeing.

Chade was turning back to help Manea, pausing when he spotted a small’sh cat that had shoved itself deep between some tree’s and branches to avoid being the hyena’s meal.  It was scraped from some nasty thorns on a berry bush, nothing too bad but it had helped her avoid becoming a meal.  Chade looked at those fearful eyes and for a moment wanted to reassure it but not yet.  “hang on,” he whispered before running back to see if Manea needed him.

"Speech"

Manea caught the one last hyena that had been irritatingly insistent on fighting her with her claws sunk deep into the side of its neck. With a snarl she threw the smaller predator to the ground next to his comrade, holding its head down with her other paw before she ripped her claws through its throat to finally end the fight. Her chest and forelegs were covered in small bites and scratches, but they were hardly anything to be concerned about and Irilyth could most certainly patch them up quickly. She gave a glance to the corpse of the hyena that Chade had killed before he ran off to chase down the last one and an appreciative smirk pulled across her lips. He was a quick study and for someone his age was genuinely becoming quite the killer.

She looked up at the boy as he came running back to her, glancing past him to see the last hyena turning tail and running. She had half a mind to chase it down and end it properly, but she knew that these giggling idiots were no threat on their own. It was only really when they were in a group that they became a pain. "I'm alright, I'm alright," she assured the dark blue boy with a chuckle when he came rushing back to her. She gave him a once over as well, just to make sure he was alright as well. She was going to be eager to get back to the island they had once lived on where she could better control what threats came on and off their land.

Manea | Temno | Ciemny